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In an effort to help customers further leverage the benefit’s of the company’s IP-based unified communications software suite, Interactive Intelligence (News - Alert) Inc. has released its second-generation SIP Interaction Gateway (News - Alert).

As an enhanced SIP gateway, this tool enables connections between traditional trunk lines (T1’s and E1’s) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) networks. The SIP Interaction Gateway also includes support for protocols such as EuroISDN, new fax support and a more scalable eight-span model.

“We designed our second-generation gateway to expand availability internationally and to provide additional protocol and feature support with the large enterprise in mind,” said Interactive Intelligence founder and CEO, Dr. Donald E. Brown, in a Tuesday statement.

“Now our Interaction Gateway equally meets the needs of contact centers and enterprises, so that more of our customers can effectively leverage the benefits of our unique IP-based, all-software communications suite.”

Beyond the North American digital trunk support, the Interaction Gateway is designed to support E1/EuroISDN and E1/QSIG. Interactive Intelligence is also seeking certification and approval for telephony, safety, emissions and packaging. Once these elements are in place, Interactive Intelligence will be able to offer its second-generation gateway throughout most countries worldwide, including those in the European Union.

Offered in a four-span and eight-span model, the second-generation Interaction Gateway can offer the flexibility to support organizations with several hundred or several thousand or more users, depending on applications deployed and interaction volume.

“Although many vendors offer gateways, I think the primary differentiator for Interactive Intelligence is its ease of deployment,” said Yankee Group (News - Alert) senior analyst, Ken Landoline, in Tuesday’s statement.

“By offering it as an organic part of the company’s unified communications platform,
Interactive Intelligence eliminates the complexity that has been a barrier to market acceptance for many competitive gateways. Interaction Gateway customers simply plug it into the network using a USB key for deployment, then configure it using an intuitive, browser-based interface.”

The Interactive Intelligence contact center automation and enterprise IP telephony systems each offer the Interaction Gateway. The solution can also be deployed with the company’s Interaction Dialer module to ensure extensive support of cal analysis is provided for contact centers with high volume of outbound dialing requirements.

Interaction Gateway is positioned as allowing organizations to further leverage their IP infrastructure investments through the deployment of the device anywhere on the network to achieve a more cost-effective implementation through the reduction of long distance charges. The solution is also meant to increase reliability and scalability by deploying it in a “one-to-may” or “many-to-one” server configuration, for load balancing and fault tolerance.

By undertaking strategies that seek to control costs, organizations are more and more coming to understand the benefits behind unified communications, especially where the contact center is concerned. This environment that is a consistent drain on resources and contact center leaders are consistently looking for areas where costs can be reduced or eliminated. By looking to solutions from Interactive Intelligence, these organizations can utilize tools designed with their core goals in mind.

Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s Whitepaper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers whitepapers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.

IP stands for Internet Protocol, a data-networking protocol developed throughout the 1980s. It is the established standard protocol for transmitting and receiving data
in packets over the Internet. I...more